Recent power industry contracts/China

The Zhejiang Provincial Electric Power Co has awarded a contract to VA Tech Hydro worth R90 million in connection with a pumped storage hydropower plant. The plant is being built for the Tongbai Pumped Storage Power Co Ltd. Tongbai is located near the city of Tiantai, around 400 km south of Shanghai. Manufacture of units for the plant has already started and construction is expected to take five years, with commissioning due at the end of 2006. The plant will have a total installed capacity of 1300 MW. The scope of the VA Tech Hydro contact covers four Francis turbines, four spherical valves, four sets of auxiliaries, four motor generators and balance of plant equipment. The station will also be equipped with a Neptune integrated automation system and marks the first use of the system, VA Tech Hydro said. Work for the project will be carried out by four VA Tech group companies in partnership with the China Electrical Technology Import and Export Co and the East China Investigation and Design Institute. The deal represents VA Tech Hydro's third pumped storage project in China.